The finest village Chablis I have ever tasted
2017 ChablisBoudin’s calm, bright and evocative 2017 Chablis is bottled and on the shelves so you can drink this stunning value wine right now.
2017 Chablis, Domaine Adhmar et Francis Boudin, Burgundy, France£18.95, reduced to £16.95 by the case, Lea & Sandeman, 020-7244 0522, LeaAndSandeman.co.uk
I tasted 1,272 Burgundies inthe second week of Januarywhile compiling my 2017 Burgundy En Primeur Report. Only 167 of these gained myhard-earned accreditation,"QP". Qualit prix or, to give it its full expression "rapport qualit prix", is the French term for "value", but it means much more than this.
Great value wines are often thought of as cheapies that over-deliver, but I use these two capital letters to denote wines that demonstrate extraordinary value for money, no matter how steep the price tag may be.
The 2017 vintage was a generous one and only the Chablis region suffered from lower yields on account of frost (again). It is good news that Burgundians finally have some wine to sell after two very short harvests. The wines are slender, calm, bright and evocative, and the best examples have good mid-palates and nice fruit ripeness, whereas the others seem just a little too mean and edgy, with tart acidity and sour tannins.
This week, I have found a QP wine which is already bottled and on our shelves so you can buy it, drink it, and in one sip understand the shape and size of the best wines from the 2017 vintage. Boudin's Chablis is stunning value and it is the finest village Chablis I have tasted. Over to you
Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).